history behind an environmental issue facing society today, or which has faced and/or shaped human society in the past.
This is an assignment that will require you to produce an audio-narrated PowerPoint or equivalent of 5 minutes’ duration on the subject of the history behind an environmental issue facing society today, or which has faced and/or shaped human society in the past. Acceptable equivalents to Powerpoint would be Apple Keynote (exported into PowerPoint format, as only Keynote can open native Keynote presentations), OpenOffice Impress, or Prezi if you’re feeling adventurous. You can select any topic you wish, so long as it has an historical focus to it.
Thus, an examination of the Sydney Tar Ponds would be a good choice, but only if you spent the majority of your research and presentation time on the history of the Tar Ponds and the circumstances that led up to the present environmental conditions there. On the other hand, an analysis of atmospheric chlorofluorocarbons that simply analysed CFC levels in the Arctic and Antarctic since 2005, with no historical discussion of how they came to be there, or what their historical uses were, would not do well. Partly to ensure that your topics are “do-able”, and partly to get you working on the project early in the term – the earlier you start, the earlier you get to finish! – you must submit a written proposal to me. The proposal, which I would expect to be about 2-3 pp in length, single-spaced, must contain the following information: your name and id; the tentative title of the topic; a 250-word (1-paragraph) outline of the topic with at least two or three thesis questions that will guide your research; and a mechanically correct annotated bibliography of at least eight sources, print or electronic. Note that thesis QUESTIONS are NOT thesis STATEMENTS. At this point in your research I would absolutely not expect you to have developed thesis statements. Consider the following analogy. You are a detective investigating a crime. If you show up at the crime scene and immediately say, “That person did it. Arrest them,” in the absence of compelling evidence, you wouldn’t bemuch of a detective. However, if you show up at the crime and say, “Right. What’s the murder weapon? Who has blood on their hands? Who had motive to commit the crime? Who had the opportunity?” and so on, and you then spend time gathering evidence that answers those questions, then you would be following a strong investigative line. At the END of the evidence gathering and analysis process you could confidently say, “Based on my investigations, its pretty clear that the butler did it.” THAT would be your thesis statement. At this earlier point, however – the proposal point – you should be positing QUESTIONS, not yet answers.
An annotated bibliography is one in which each of your source citations includes a paragraph- length description of the source (its subject, its major argument, and how you foresee yourself using the item in your research). Annotations need not be long – indeed, they should be no longer than 100 words or so, not including the actual citation itself, of course – but they must convey the elements outlined above. Citations must be in the Chicago Manual of Style Format – this is a history course, after all!
The major focus of the PowerPoint itself must be the historical dimension of the chosen issue, although you should also pay close attention to the current status of the problem (if it persists to the present day), the major points of debate (these can range from political to economic, philosophical to social), and the potential scope and scale of the problem. I strongly encourage you to employ web-based research in undertaking your investigation: there is a great deal of excellent environmental material available on the internet; but remember that you should be cautious when approaching these materials – some of them can be tendentious and / or non- analytical in their focus. Restrict your use of web-based material to institutional sites (universities, non-governmental organisations, major environmental groups such as Greenpeace or the Sierra Club, etc., government sources, or news services such as the Environmental News Network – enn.com). Avoid, if at all possible, personal web-pages unless you can cross-reference and support material gleaned there from other sources. You may find it useful to review the excellent tutorial, Credible Sources Count, dealing with internet research developed by the staff at the Vaughan Library. It may be found at http://library.acadiau.ca/tutorials/webevaluation/.
The Powerpoint will be graded on a metric that includes mechanical components, the success in defining the topic and its historical dimensions, the use of graphically-presented information, the presence of a reference list, the overall timing of your narration and the Powerpoint slideshow, and so on. I will provide a very detailed explanation of the metric, and what you must do to score well on it, later on in the course. Note that mechanics will form a substantial grading factor here. You are expected to employ Chicago Manual of Style guidelines and mechanical correctness will be a substantial factor in grading. You can find an accessible Styleguide which covers the mechanical basics on the course ACORN page, and more detailed discussions of Chicago Format may be found in the History Subject Guide accessible from the front page of the Vaughan Library website.
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